Showering baby Stella (& Todd & Laine) with lots of L-O-V-E

Yesterday was the baby shower for baby Stella (and mommy & daddy-to-be, Todd & Laine). I am so excited for them. We had the baby shower at my mom's house and Aunt Virginia and Mary Elizabeth helped host it. It was wonderful. I am so grateful for dear friends like them who helped plan, coordinate, and throw the shower. Mary Elizabeth will be next!! :) Baby Levi is due March 13th, which is not too far away. Laine looked beautiful and Tucker LOVED loving on her belly. After the shower was over, Laine put him in her lap and he just SAT and SAT and SAT and SAT for at LEAST 20-25 minutes. We couldn't believe it. He just sat there and ate the first few minutes, then just watched what was going on and started loving on baby Stella in her belly. It was SO cute. We kept telling him to rub her belly - that there was a baby in there and he didn't know what to think. After rubbing his own belly several times, he finally understood that we were telling him to rub HER belly. He started rubbing it real gently. A few minutes later, he got confused & started rubbing all over her chest, thinking he was supposed to do that, too. We cracked up because Jonathan said "how are we gonna explain this at church tonight?" Haha. He didn't do that but one time but it was so funny. I can't wait to love on that sweet baby girl when she gets here but also to see how Tucker will do with her. This will be the first little baby he will be around so ... we said he's not gonna know what to think! This would be a good time to introduce "sharing". :) Here are a few pics from yesterday..

Busy October!

We have had a lot going on over the last week. Bible studies, church friend's babies being born, preparing for Laine & Todd's baby shower, getting ready for Halloween, working, etc. etc. But what a blessed October it has been. It's already the 29th! This past weekend was the busiest. We cooked out with friends Friday night, went shopping and baked/cooked (in prep for the baby shower) on Saturday during the day, then went to Bethlehem Baptist's fall festival Saturday night (which was a last minute thing), and then had my sister-in-law & brother's baby shower on Sunday (along with church activies in the AM & PM). Woooo...Jonathan and I finally got to catch up Sunday night and just debrief about the weekend. It is wonderful to be on the go, but nice to be still & catch your breath with the ones you love the most after all is said and done <3 I am just including a few pictures from the fall festival Saturday night. Tucker loved it. Of course the first two balloons that went flying to the ceiling in Bethlehem's gym were ours! but ... what can you do :) They'll pop or eventually get them down somehow. And I'm sure ours weren't the only ones. Tucker thought it was funny! Mommy didn't! :) We only stayed for about 30 minutes ... long enough to see a few familiar faces and for Tucker to play. Then it was bedtime! We were gonna have a busy day the next day (with Laine's baby shower). Here are a few pics from fall festival. I'm sure I will be posting more after Halloween (in 2 days).

Our little Elmo! He LOVES Elmo & Cookie Monster right now .. the Cookie Monster outfit wasn't available in his size soo Elmo it is!! :)

Grandmommy & Elmo :)

Getting his first balloon of the night from the clown!

Tucker & his distant cousins/preschool buddies, Chloe & Izzy. Chloe is in Tucker's class. He started pointing to her when he saw her!

Tucker & his buddies, Weston & Griffin! Love these boys!

I just have to say ... I always see others posting publically on facebook about their husbands or children or whoever. I don't ever want to seem like I'm bragging or boasting about them so I don't usually do it but since nobody really sees this I just have to shout to the rooftops I LOVE MY HUSBAND AND SON SOOOOOO SOOOOOO VERY MUCH!! My husband is the most loving, godly, trusting, warmest, funniest, hard-working, family-oriented husband and father. I could go on and on but ... I won't... instead, I'll tell HIM. And my son is just PRECIOUS. He makes us smile, laugh, snuggle up to, enjoy, love, EVERY single part of him. He is at such a fun age right now. He is 20 months (tomorrow, actually) and he just keeps us going. He is now starting to say more and more and it is so cute. He repeats what we do. Like tonight ... I went running (SHOCKER, I know), but it had been "one of those days with work" and I needed some alone time to pray and talk to God soo ... when I got back, I was stretching and reaching up to the sky and then bending down and touching my toes and he was copying me. He was even copying me doing jumping jacks too. It just cracked us up. He LOVED it. Jonathan and I are just so blessed to have each other and we are so thankful God blessed us with the perfect gift to us, our son. I love you both (and I won't just write it, but I'll make sure to tell you, too!)

Women of Faith - October 2012

OH MY GOODNESS what a weekend! I must say that I was a little hesitant about leaving Jonathan and Tucker again since I had just gone on a Bible Study retreat last weekend, but woww am I glad I went! What a spiritually uplifting weekend. My sister-in-law, Laine, asked my mom and I to go to this conference several months ago and my mom went ahead and got us tickets. Laine's church has been attending the past several years and I am very grateful that she asked us to go. Friday morning, we met a group of about 15-20 women/ladies at Cracker Barrel and then left for Charlotte. The funny thing was that my mom and I thought the whole time that the conference was in Greensboro but when we got to Burlington and made a few pit-stops shopping, somebody mentioned going to Concord Mills (which we knew was near Charlotte) so we asked and ... YEP! We were headed to Charlotte! haha ... We got there just in time to go get a quick meal (at Bojangle's) and head to the train station to get to the arena. When we got there, the seats were AWESOME. We were probably on the 15th row and that was super close for an arena. There was a combination of speakers such as Sandy Patty (who I remember from being little), Kristine Cain (who shared the gospel in one of the most powerful ways ever - through her unique story!), and Brenda Warner (NFL player, Kurt Warner's wife - who's story was a complete tear-jerker!) to painters and dancers, and singers like Amy Grant and Mandisa!!!! Every bit of it was AWESOME! I would LOVE to go next year and take a group from Central (or at least our women's Bible study group) but we will see! I was so thankful to ride with my mom and have that time with her. I worked most of the day on Friday in the car, but on the way back Saturday, we were able to talk and share and catch up and just cry with each other. After hearing Brenda Warner's story (and I encourage you to get her book "One Call Away" if you have never heard of her), I had to get home and see my sweet baby boy (and I wanted to see his daddy soo much too - but he was at the fire station!) You will completely understand why when you read the book. I am so very grateful for my loving husband, precious child, and all my family and friends. God, you give us exactly what we need when we need it. Thank YOU! <3

Being silly :) This was just supposed to be a picture of me & Jonathan ... Tucker jumped right in! LOVE these two <3

Me & J :) Love him so very much <3

Me & the little man :) he's a MESS! <3 him to pieces, too!

Visiting daddy at the fire station! He loves big "tucks"!

Just the 3 of us <3 At Lincoln's 1st birthday party!

HIS ladies beach retreat!

HIS ladies is the name of our Bible study group that meets every other Thursday night. We meet at Charity Cooke's house across the street from the church and it has truly been a blessing to me. I got an email 3 years ago from Charity with an invitation to start coming to this newly created Bible study, but I was new to the church and thought "oh, they are just being nice and inviting me ... I probably won't go." Well, two or three weeks later when I had not responded, I got a call from Iris Woodard asking me if I was coming to the Bible study. I said, "oh, me?! I thought the email I got was just generic." She said "no, we would love for you to come." Now, I have to say ... getting a personal invitation, knowing that somebody does care about you, meant SO much more to me than anybody could imagine. I am mostly an introvert (who can be an extrovert at times), but it takes me a little while to open up. Because of that email and phone call that was sent 3 years ago, my life has been blessed abundantly with Christian friendships, girls that I couldn't imagine going through life without. So this past weekend we took a little beach retreat to Atlantic Beach. We did this 2 years ago and decided it was time to do it again. Last time I went, Tucker was in my tummy! MY, a lot has happened in two years! Anyway, I offered my grandparent's trailer again so we decided to stay there since there were only 7 of us and we could all fit. When we first got there, there were 2 huge roaches on the kitchen floor!!!! One was dead and the other one crawled away too quickly and hid from us. It wasn't so bad until ... we saw the 3rd roach and then the 4th roach. The 4th roach was crawling up the wall and we said "OK - who's really down with going to Hampton Inn?!" SO ... off we went at 1:30 in the morning. We all slept in the same room AND we got continental breakfast instead of going out to breakfast so it all evened out. It was something to laugh about and remember our trip by! We had SO much fun. We talked and talked and laughed and laughed until 4:00 in the morning!! OH MY GOODNESS!! We were soo exhausted! When we woke up on Saturday, we got showers, ate continental breakfast, and went back to the trailer to work on our craft for our husband's and hang out. We prayed for our husband's (which is so important and something I need to do more of!) and talked and talked and laughed all day again. The crazy thing was we didn't see any roaches while we were there on Saturday. We decided to take a walk on the beach and do our bible study out there. It was the calmest and most beautiful I have seen Atlantic Beach in a long time. God's creation is BEAUTIFUL! I think the bible study was intended to be short, but the Holy Spirit was there. He had other plans. We all ended up in tears, opening up, growing together and just talking about how to encourage and strengthen one another in the Lord. GOD, You are soo soo good! We then went back to the trailer to clean up, pack our stuff, and head to eat at Sanitary before we made the trip back home to our husband's and babies. We got back about 10:00. Shannon, who was 37 weeks pregnant and scheduled for her c-section October 31st, texted us on Monday and had gone in for her routine check up and there were some complications so she had an emergency c-section that day. PRAISE GOD that she is ok and so is the baby. They are all healthy and happy. And thank YOU, Lord for your perfect timing. We joked about her going into labor while we were at the beach, but we didn't realize that she was THAT close to having him :) HE IS PRECIOUS!! Thank you, God, for wonderful friends and ladies in Christ who help encourage one another and are there for one another. We definitely missed all the ones that couldn't be there but they are just as special to us :)

High School Girls Outing :)

Our high school girls have been asking and asking about having a scavenger hunt for a long time. FINALLY, this past Friday night, October 5th, we did one. We went to Triangle Town Center, ate dinner, broke up into groups of 3 (plus one leader in each group) and had one hour to complete the tasks. These tasks included things such as: Videotaping your group frantically searching for a contact lense on the floor of the mall Videotaping your group pretending to ride a tractor and serenading some people with a song about tractors, farmers, etc. Videotaping your group doing the chicken dance with other people (which NOBODY would do by the way) Videotaping a couple describing how they met (thanks Don & Susan!) Taking a picture of your girls dressed up in clothes on a mannequin Collecting as many signatures as possible Finding out how many entrances there are to the mall ETC. ETC. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY --> we had to ask someone how we could pray for them. When my group was collecting signatures, this one lady was reading over our brochure and said "who's the prayer here?" We said "any of us". She starting telling us how her brother was on dialysis and was having heart problems. She then stated to pray for her as well as she was diabetic. We prayed with her right then and there. THIS is why we do these fun things ... there are SO many people who are desperately seeking for "something, someone, anyone" ... and not everybody knows that there is only ONE solution to their problems ... JESUS!! Thank you Lord for our encounter with this precious lady. It was SO much fun! We had lots of laughs and good times and look forward to doing it again. After that, we went to sweet frogs to get yogurt and then went back and all stayed at Amanda's house. We stayed up until 3AM ... I'll be honest, I'm not as young as I used to be. I have been sick for several days now!! haha ... but I love these girls to pieces and wouldn't trade my time with them for anything!

Calling .........

I know my last post was about the birth of Tucker-man, but it is impossible to go back and recap every single event and detail from his birth to now. I will probably periodically post something from within the past 20 months (like first Christmas, first vacation, etc. etc.) but for now, I'm gonna start posting what's going on NOW. Lots of things have happened within the past year and a half/two years. God has blessed us greatly and we thank HIM for that. Before Tucker was born, Jonathan and I really felt a strong call on his life to go into the ministry. We felt the Lord telling us to sell our house, move back to Wendell, start school (seminary for Jonathan) and to continue to serve Him in every area of our lives. Well ... we were anticipating Tucker arriving and what I heard God saying was not what "I" wanted to do. HOW SELFISH of me!! "I" didn't want to sell our house ... we had JUST finished the nursery, I was 8 months pregnant, we didn't have the money, yada yada yada.. LET ME TELL YOU, God always knows what's best, NOT ME!! At that time, we said "OK, God - we hear your call. We are ready - "send us, we'll go" ... but we stayed right here. We didn't actually make a MOVE in any of the areas he was telling us to. We SAID ok we'll do it, but we didn't actually "DO IT". Let me tell you, life is MISERABLE when you are living outside of God's will. Although we had the most precious gift given to us (WHO IS THE LIGHT OF OUR LIFE!! - HE WAS THEN AND STILL IS NOW!!), things were rough. I developed bad anxiety about 4 months after having Tucker where I couldn't stay by myself at all. As anybody who is reading this probably knows, Jonathan is a fireman so he is gone 24 hours at the time. What that meant for us was that my mom or his mom would have to stay with me & Tucker or we had to end up staying with them.. which was not convenient for ANYbody!! We also had one health issue after another (including appendectomy along with other random ER visits and hospital stays) which ran our medical bills up like crazy.. so I thought we "didn't have the money" for school ... well, we really didn't have money now.. (SIDENOTE - this is info leading up to what I'm about to tell you ... we are BEYOND BLESSED so I know our health issues and financial issues could be much much worse) - this was just a time that we felt like maybe we were paying some of the consequences for not being obedient to Him in the first place............. OK so let's move to NOW. Back at the beginning of the summer, God's call on Jonathan's life still remained. Just because we had not made a move up to this point, didn't mean the call had "gone away". When God calls you, HE calls you loud and clear! We said "OK GOD - we are sorry for not making a move up until this point ... what are YOUR plans for us? Because we can do NOTHING without you and we don't want to live outside of your perfect will any longer." So ... God said sell your dad's car (1964 impala), use that money to go back to school, even though it's almost the cut-off date to applications being in, I'll push it through, I'll provide extra finances for you through an internship at church, put your house on the market and I will take care of selling it for you. So, off we went, believing God CAN DO ANYTHING ... Jonathan's dad's car sold and it provided enough money to get him started in school, Jonathan's application was accepted and he was able to start on time this fall (through internet classes to go along with His fire schedule - PTL), God provided the internship for him to also start in the fall, and our house is still on the market but we KNOW that God is faithful and He will provide the right person for this house. Another blessing - through prayer and believing that God can take it away, my anxiety is little to none - PRAISE THE LORD. I never understood what it meant to have depression or anxiety until this past year and a half, but I will pray so hard for anybody who has it. I now get it. I am so thankful He has allowed me to be ok staying by myself (with Tucker). Don't get me wrong, I still have my moments, but they are nothing like what I had several months ago. Our GOD ALMIGHTY is so much bigger than Satan and any doubts, anxieties, or worries he puts in our heads. Thank you, Jesus! I have never seen my husband so passionate about something in his life. He loves the Lord, loves his classes, loves reading God's word and digging deeper into it. We are also soo crazy about our youth group. God has blessed us with awesome friends (other youth leaders) and also these awesome kids who are growing and maturing in God's word. God is faithful. He uses our peaks to strengthen and encourage us, but has also used those deep valleys to grow us into who He is calling us to be. Lesson learned: GOD KNOWS BEST!!

February 24th 2011 - Tucker's Arrival

Ok, so if you are reading my blog for the first time, you will see how far behind I am. I promise I'm not going to go back and recap everything that has happened the past 20 months ... but I thought this one was pretty important :) I want to have it blogged just for me to be able to come back and look at years down the road. I went to the DR for my normal 38 week checkup on Wednesday, February 23rd. I actually overslept (after being up and down during the night) and was running late so I didn't even take a shower - well, I washed off, but didn't wash my hair. By 38 weeks, correct me if I'm wrong, but most mommy-to-be's don't care if they've washed their hair or put makeup on or if they've done the whole usual morning routine. I was doing good to be making it to the DR on time. Besides, I thought I was coming straight home and going back to bed. Since I was running so late, I grabbed the box of cheerios and crammed some in my mouth on the way to the DR. My bags were packed (at the house) but I didn't think there was any need in taking them ... not yet?! Jonathan met me at the DR's office since it was right down the road from his fire station. So I begin the usual process of my DR appt ... peeing in a cup, weighing myself, having my blood pressure taken, all the normal things. Every other morning it was usually a quick process ... but not this morning. When the nurse first took my blood pressure she said, "hmmm ... that's strange" and I thought "WHAT IS STRANGE?!" She then proceeded to tell me that my blood pressure was 138 over 100. I thought ... ok, is that super high or what? I knew my normal range was like 100/80 or something like that ... it had been pretty low the whole pregnancy. She then led me to the room that Jonathan was already in to lay down on the table and see if it would go down. So ... I layed there about 3 or 4 minutes before Dr. Richardson came in. **Now, I'll be honest ... I can tell you why my blood pressure was high. I was working and working and working every day until late trying to finish up different tasks that HAD to be done before I went out on maternity leave the next 6 weeks.. I had worked all day the day before and was still at my desk at 8:00 that night and I was TIRED and ... not to mention RUSHING to my appt that morning** SO ... DR. Richardson comes in and retakes my blood pressure. It was even higher - 150/110 (or 119) -- I can't remember the EXACT, but it wasn't good. She talked to me and Jonathan and said she was going to go ahead and send us over to Labor and Delivery at Rex to monitor me and see if we could get my blood pressure to go down.. she said "if it doesn't come down, you could be having a baby today".... WHAT?!?!?!?!?! TODAY?!?! RIGHT NOW?!! Both of us looked at each other like "so this could happen TODAY?!" :) :) She called over to labor and delivery and off we went! When we got in the car and started driving, we didn't know what to think. We were both sure that my blood pressure would go down and we would be going back home (and back to work). We both called our moms and my dad to let them know what was going on but told them all not to say anything yet and not to move a muscle from their workplaces because we really didn't think it would happen today. When we got to Rex, we drove around looking for the entrance for several minutes - yea, we were bad and didn't go to the classes - so we did NOT know where to go at first, but finally found it. When we got there, Dr. Tosky was the Dr. on call. They hooked me up to all kinds of monitors and I just laid there and laid there. The bad part was that I couldn't have anything to eat..and I had skipped breakfast.. and I was STARVING already (and it was only 10:00 in the morning). By 11:30, Dr. Tosky came in and said he had been watching the monitor and it didn't look like my blood pressure was going down any. He said "we can do one of two things - we can send you home in which you'll probably be back up here tomorrow or Friday and we could risk your blood pressure being even higher and more of a risk of other things ... OR ... we could induce you today and go ahead and take care of you and that baby" ......... Jonathan said, "well, if this was you, what would you do, Dr. Tosky?" Dr. Tosky responded with "I would definitely stay here and go ahead and have the baby" ... (which is what we were both thinking anyway after he gave us those two options!) SO it was official!! We were getting ready to have a baby within the next 24 hours!! We immediately got on the phone and called my dad to go get my bag from the house with all our stuff in it.. which he graciously went and got for us! Jonathan's mom had already arrived and my mom arrived shortly after. THEY ARE NOT VERY GOOD LISTENERS!! They didn't stay put!! :) We got situated in the delivery room and hooked up to all the monitors and were ready to have our sweet TUCKER!! I was induced around 2:00 and honestly wasn't feeling TOO much pain at first (I can say that NOW but ... this is 20 months later). I remember by 5:00 or so, I was in massive pain from the contractions. I KNEW I wanted an epidural before I even went in there. More power to all the women who can give birth without an epidural! I am NOT one of those women! Since I was only a few centimeters dilated by 5:00 or so, it wasn't yet time for the epidural. They gave me a medicine for in the meantime but I can't remember what it is called. It makes you feel kinda blurry.. I remember I felt that way watching American Idol so it had to be around 8:00 or so. I finally got the epidural around 9:30 or 10:00. Once I got the epidural, my pain was very little. The pressure was what was the worst. I remember Jonathan finally fell asleep around 12:30 and I starting calling his name to tell him how much pressure there was and I had to call his name several times before he finally woke up and answered me :) He called the nurse who was AMAZING. She stayed by our side the WHOLE entire time except for about 30 minutes or so around 12:00-1:00 so we could get some rest. After Jonathan called the nurse to come in there, she checked to see how much I had dilated and she realized I was at 9 1/2 centimeters ... it was time to PUSH! No wonder I was feeling pressure! I remember the FUNNIEST thing was while the nurse was getting everything set up for me to start pushing, Jonathan said "on a scale of 1-10, how bad do you think this has been ... I mean because I honestly don't think it has been so bad" ... UMMM, REALLY?!! Of course not! haha you aren't the one in pain!! :) But really, at that point, it wasn't TOO TOO bad ... but we didn't know what was coming next!!!! If only we knew ........... the answer to that question might have been different :) So Jonathan texted our moms and my dad to let them know we were starting to push around 2:30 so ... we were thinking ya know ... 20 to 30 minutes?? Well ... 2 hours and 20 minutes later our precious baby boy was born!! I won't go into all the details but it was something I will never forget. During the process, I thought "how in the WORLD can anybody have more than one child after all this pain?!" ****BUT when I held that precious baby boy in my arms for the first time, I now know how you forget every bit of pain that comes along with childbirth!! Everything that had just happened was forgotten IMMEDIATELY!! I cannot even explain the joy and excitement of holding him and seeing him for the first time. Jonathan and I both were filled with SOO much love. Needless to say, he is the most precious gift from God we could have ever imagined. God has brought our family closer and closer these last 20 months and I pray everyday for a hedge of protection over us. Jonathan and I couldn't imagine our lives without our sweet boy. He is the cutest, sweetest, most loving, lovable, hilarious, full of personality boy I could have ever imagined.. SOO much like his daddy it's crazy! I am one blessed wife/mother!!

SO MUCH HAS CHANGED BUT SO MUCH REMAINS THE SAME

Wow ... where do I even begin?! Since I last blogged, so much has changed. MOST IMPORTANTLY, we have the the most PRECIOUS gift from God ... Tucker Gerald Williams :) He is now almost 20 months old soo forgive me for not posting in FOREVER!! What a wonderful blessing he is to our family. I wanted to post about the experience and the delivery right after he was born but just never got around to it. I can't imagine how it is to have 2, 3, 4, etc. kids because my time is occupied by just one! And he is worth every single second of it! Jonathan and I are soo very blessed and thankful that God has allowed us to be Tucker's parents. It has been a life-changing experience, that's for sure, but one I wouldn't change for the world. He has brought so much life to our family. God has been SO good to us this past year and a half. We have had our high peaks and even some low valleys along the way but those have helped to strengthen our faith as well as grow us into the people God is calling us to be. I'm just going to post a few pictures and maybe, HOPEFULLY, will start seriously blogging again. I am starting to get a little "over" facebook at times so I wanted to be able to do something where I could share, but only with the closest of family/friends. .